as a result, they devalued the yen. for example, for every 1 dollar -- for every 1 yen that the yen goes the dollar, toyota can lose $380 million in profits and that's why the japanese finance minister said he intervened today. >> carter evans live from the nasdaq market site, thank you. "american morning" continues right now. snowfall before the leaves fall. people cleaning up after a nor'easter slams the east coast, and it could be days, up to a week before millions get their power back. no food, no water, no bathroom. passengers stuck on a plane for seven hours in the storm, and boy, are they vetting their anger this morning. explosive claims of sexual harassment. gop presidential candidate herman cain speaks out about the charges against him. and baby makes 7 billion. a new milestone for the global

population on this "american morning." ♪ good morning to you and happy halloween. >> happy halloween! >> whoo! it is monday, october 31st. welcome to "american morning." i'm carol costello. >> good morning. i'm alina cho. talk about an october surprise, and i'm not talking about politics. >> no. >> that storm was really -- >> it was vicious, wasn't it? >> it certainly was, and it came through fast and left just as fast, but boy, did it leave a trail of destruction. >> yes, it did, and that's up first. the aftermath of a rare and deadly october nor'easter, the storm dumping wet, slushy, heavy snow from maryland to maine. close to three feet of snow fell in new england, leaving millions without power this morning. it's literally postponed halloween in parts of new england. the "boston globe" reporting some towns rescheduled the holiday for friday instead. local officials don't want the

kids out with so many power lines down. and it was one of those weekends where travelers heard trouble. 40 passengers stuck on an amtrak train for 13 hours when a rockslide blocked the tracks in central massachusetts. >> at least they had a working bathroom on that train because they didn't on this plane. jetblue facing millions of dollars in potential fines this morning after passengers on board a flight from ft. lauderdale to newark were diverted to hartford and then trapped on board that plane on the tarmac for seven hours. no food, no water, little fresh air and, yes, the toilets were backed up. >> sounds like a great time. check out this ireport. time-collapse video from a yard in oak ridge, new jersey. autumn turning to winter. the ireporter says they ended up with 16 inches there. he set up his camera to take a picture every minute for seven hours on saturday. >> that is cool. >> that is cool. >> the storm was almost worth it, seeing those pictures.

not. in some of the hardest hit areas, people are told it could be a week or more before they get the power back on. chad myers is live in york, pennsylvania, this morning. and chad, you usually like snow, but maybe not so much this morning? >> reporter: not when there are still leaves on the trees, carol it was a mess yesterday. power crews were up and down trying to get these power lines back on, and they did a pretty good job. it was sunny yesterday, almost 45 degrees. our saturday snowman turned into this yesterday. so, although it melted rather quickly and the roads look pretty good this morning, you know, those eight hours of snow, that just brought down so many power lines. it will be days before they get all this power back working for everyone. >> this is going to take a long time to get this back up, isn't it? >> absolutely. >> how many days, do you think? >> i'd say probably wednesday. yeah, we've got a lot of crews coming in from other areas, other states. >> reporter: i see the windshield just a mess, completely smashed. what did that feel like? >> just looking at it, it's the

sound of the tree falling on the car that scared me, and it didn't break, so i didn't get any glass in my face. i mean, it shattered and the mirror's hanging down there, so i couldn't even see the back windshield through the mirror. >> reporter: does it make you think about driving under trees next time or driving at all? >> yes. i debated whether to turn right and go home before i made that part of my trip yesterday or not and i didn't, and it was the wrong mistake. >> reporter: so, what do we have for this morning? this morning we have fog out here. fog is never good when temperatures are below 30, especially 32 where we are right here. the fog could make black ice, especially on the bridges and overpasses. watch that. the roads will look good and all of a sudden, you'll get to a bridge and it could be a sheet of ice. what else does it mean? it means because we had clear skies, temperatures were very cold overnight, the planes have frost on every wing, every surface. nearly every plane leaving atlanta today all the way to maine will have to be deiced before it leaves.

that will slow down the first departures, maybe even a couple arrivals later on having to be a little slow, so expect that. everything's going to move just a little bit slower today. by some time, maybe 8:00, 9:00, things are going to start to melt. that means there's going to be spray on your windshield from the car in front of you, some of the slush on the roadways. make sure you have that little blue jug, that windshield washer fluid, make sure that jug under your hood is filled up today, because otherwise, you'll just be smearing that muddy water back and forth with the windshield wipers. it will be kind of a tough day to be driving around, especially this afternoon. and every night this week it's going to get down to 32 or colder, so it's going to be a cold night in houses without power. area hotels are jammed here in york, pennsylvania. >> i don't think there's a hotel room that -- i mean, there aren't any left, that's it, you're right. chad myers, thank you, live in york, pennsylvania, this morning. >> reporter: you're welcome. >> more than 4 million people across the northeast are waking up in the dark this morning. it really was the perfect storm

as far as power outages go. wet, heavy snow snapping tree limbs that didn't even have a chance to shed their leaves yet. in connecticut, in particular, a big mess, branches and power lines. the governor said this storm broke a state record for blackouts, and that record was just set back in august when the remnants of hurricane irene came through. joining us now for an update on the situation is mitch gross. he's the spokesman for connecticut light and power. and he's joining us by phone from berlin, connecticut. mr. gross, thank you for joining us this morning. 750,000 customers in connecticut without power. when we take a look at the map, that's nearly the entire top half of the state, plus more. there you see it there in the black. what are you doing this morning to try to get the power back on? >> it's all hands on deck. good morning. and yes, 750,000 cl&b customers without. howev however, saturday night, we restored power to over 140,000.

so, we are making progress. it's a 24/7 exercise, of course, around the clock the crews are working, and we have commitments from an additional 600 crews coming in from literally all over north america to help us out. so, a lot of help is already here, a lot more on the way, and we still have, yes, quite honestly, a lot of work to do. >> that's right. and by some estimates, it's going to take more than a week in some areas of connecticut. now, having said that, in terms of tree damage, this was five times as bad as hurricane irene in terms of downed trees. i think it's safe to say it took a lot of people by surprise. and if you had to point your finger, was the culprit the leaves on the trees, do you think, that just weighed those trees down? >> exactly, it's the trees. we have -- connecticut is one of the most heavily wooded states in the country. connecticut light and power, one of the most heavily wooded utility service areas in the country. trees are, you know, our

customers love their trees, but sometimes it's a double-edged sword, and we knew and it was accurately predicted that all of our trees, that with this storm coming, you know, the snow and the ice was going to weigh the leaves down and snap the branches, and you know, there were going to be problems. weed in very clear to our customers, as did government officials. and you know, the reality was, yes, we were in the dark in a lot of places. >> is it fair to say that every county in the state of connecticut is affected by this? >> every county. there are eight counties in connecticut. we service 149 of connecticut's 169 towns. every one of the towns we service has been impacted to some extent by this storm. >> one last question here. people in connecticut are saying it's like a third world country, no food, no water, no light. obviously, a lot of people are really frustrated. what is your suggestion for these residents in terms of coping and getting through this

in the meantime, while their power is out? >> well, i can easily say patience, of course, but there are -- you know, shelters have been set up in many communities, and neighbors are helping neighbors and reaching out, and that's what we do up here, you know? you know, it's new england, it does snow. it just happened to snow a lot earlier than we're originally used to, but we will get through this. neighbors are helping neighbors and reaching out to families and friends. people are taking advantage of the shelters, and we'll work as hard as we can to get those lights back on. >> there's a reason why they're calling it shocktober. mitch gross with connecticut light and power, thank you for that update. >> i like that, shocktober. >> best of luck. >> really, it's the last day, thank goodness. let's send it to atlanta and reynolds wolf. so, shocktober is over. is it going to get better? >> a little bit. this is one of those things where it will take a couple days to get back to normal. the reason why all this happened was, of course, because of the nor'easter. there is an intense area of low pressure pulling along the eastern seaboard. it brought in a lot of cold air

that came from the north, plus a lot of moisture off the atlantic, and the result was what you see here, over 30 inches of snowfall in parts of new hampshire. plainfield, massachusetts, had over 30 inches. windsor, a couple feet, also in west milford and millbrook. the contrast in places like new jersey and back towards philadelphia -- philadelphia had only 0.3 inches of snowfall, so kind of a feast or mam famine in parts of the northeast, but we anticipate today that that cold air will remain locked in place, especially from the jersey shore, parts of long island, back along the delmarva peninsula, and washington, d.c., certainly a cold morning, but certainly should be above the freezing point, and we expect temperatures to modify, warm up a bit through the rest of the workweek. in terms of traveling, here's what it means. if you're flying out, biggest problems will be well south in the sunshine state of florida where it's going to live up to its billing today. not a whole lot of sunshine, but still heavy rain, delays under an hour for miami, orlando and

tampa. detroit, scattered showers may keep you grounded. in san francisco, not the fog, but rather, the gusty winds may give you a few delays here and there. now, what we're going to be seeing across the nation's midsection, a little dry air moving into the central plains, the midwest, into the intermountain west, central rockies, scattered showers. maybe in the highest peaks you'll see a touch of snowfall. for much of the west coast, pockets of fog along the coast, and for the four corners, southward into phoenix and tucson, should be just beautiful. now moving into the great lakes, we're seeing another area of low pressure, and with that, scattered showers to parts of, say michigan, maybe even detroit before all is said and done. but in the northeast, things should improve a little bit. still some scattered showers in parts of the southeast. wrapping up your forecast, highs for the day, 68 kansas city, 54 minneapolis, 60 in billings, 63 san francisco, 70 albuquerque, 56 chicago, 62 in atlanta and miami and tampa into the 80s. that's a look at your forecast on this halloween. let's pitch it back to you.

>> all right. >> we got it. >> there you go. good catch. >> thank you, reynolds. we'll check in with you later. >> and often. meanwhile, politics now. herman cain's campaign is denying an explosive, new report that says two women filed sexual harassment claims against the georgia businessman back in the 1990s. according to politico, those complaints came when cain was the head of the national restaurant association. both women were reportedly paid large cash settlements for their silence and left their jobs. cain's camp says the report isn't true, calling it unfair. >> i'm not going to comment on that, because you know, i think that is one of those kinds of things that -- >> yes or no? >> last question -- >> have you ever been accused of sexual harassment? >> and the man you just saw questioning cain is the man we will talk to very soon. we are going to talk about the report, how the sexual harassment claims against cain might impact his run for the

white house when we're joined by the reporter who broke the story, the man there, jonathan martin, politico's senior political reporter, will join us in the next half hour with "american morning." >> some conservatives saying these reports are unfair because the women are not named and the allegations aren't really specific. >> that's right. they're saying they can't go after his ideas for how to fix the economy, so they're pulling this out. >> we'll talk to jonathan martin and ask him to stand up for his story. it will be interesting. still ahead, stories from inside a nightmare jetblue flight. passengers stuck on the plane for seven hours after it was diverted in the storm. food, water, air running out. yo hear cell phone calls from passengers and the pilot pleading with the airport for help. >> one man now says he knows what it feels like to be incarcerated. speaking of nightmares, at long last, 100,000 qantas airlines passengers may finally get to their destinations. we'll explain. you're watching "american morning."

it's 14 minutes after the hour. (rambling phone conversation)

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welcome back at 17 minutes after the hour. jetblue passengers say it was downright degrading! about 200 people were stuck on a plane on the tarmac for seven hours in connecticut during this weekend's storm. i cannot imagine being on that plane. >> i think it would be like hell. whatever happened to that passengers bill of rights, you ask? because there is a passengers bill of rights. this was supposed to prevent this kind of thing. susan candiotti has stories from inside the hell. >> reporter: alina and carol, good morning. blinding snow in a freak october storm created havoc in the northeast, but one of the worst nightmares was for stranded passengers in hartford, connecticut. 23 planes were diverted to hartford, according to jetblue,

which says 6 of the planes were theirs, stranding passengers on the tarmac for eight and nine hours. no food, water, bathrooms unusable. passengers did have cell phones and unleashed their fury. >> they're filled. they're totally filled. no one can go in them anymore. you just have to hold it. >> going in and out, bathrooms are locked. people are quite upset. >> reporter: a department of transportation rule enacted last year called the airline passengers bill of rights was supposed to prevent situations like this. among the requirements, food, water and a clean bathroom within two hours of being stuck and the right to get off a stranded plane after three hours. in a statement, jetblue apologized and says power outages at the airport made correcting problems difficult. the changes came after a february 2007 incident. passengers were stuck on a jetblue flight at jfk for eight hours. >> there was no power and it was hot. there was no air. they kept having to open the actual plane doors so we could breathe comfortably.

>> reporter: and now it appears history is repeating itself. >> it is absolutely unacceptable that the airlines and the airport did not manage to get these passengers off the plane. >> reporter: kate hanni fought for the bill of rights after being stuck on a plane herself five years ago. she now runs a website that advocates for passengers and says the airlines needed to cancel flights sooner. >> the flying public has overwhelmingly said they would rather have their flight canceled or be stuck inside an airport than they would like to be stuck inside an airplane. >> reporter: an airport spokesman did not respond to cnn's call seeking comment. the d.o.t.'s new regulation doesn't apply to airports. >> hopefully, we can get airports added to the rule, because this is a real -- i knew when i talked to operations last night, i knew that they were scrambling and they knew they had screwed up royally. >> reporter: the d.o.t. says its passenger protection rule has virtually eliminated all delays of three hours or more. a spokeswoman says no airline has been fined since the new rule came out, but because of

what happened this weekend in connecticut, the d.o.t. has just opened a new investigation. alina and carol? >> they've opened this new investigation, but the legislation applies only to airlines, not to the airport itself. and in this case, it appears the airport was to blame for these passengers being stuck on the tarmac for seven hours. >> you can bet that the passengers are not mad at the airport, though. probably mad at the airline. >> they're probably mad at everyone. but we actually have some audio from the pilot aboard that jetblue plane, and he's pleading for help during this ordeal because one of the passengers was sick and another passenger was in a wheelchair. listen. >> look, you know, we can't seem to get any help from our own company. i apologize for this, but is there any way you can get a tug and a tow bar out here to us and get us towed somewhere to a gate or something? i don't care. take us anywhere.

>> jetblue 504, roger. i will talk to state operations and see what they can do. were you able to resolve the situation in the back or is that still ongoing? >> yes, we've resolved it for now. we've got the show of authorities on board, but i have a paraplegic on board that needs to come off, i have a diabetic on here that's got an issue. it's a list of things. i just got to get some help. >> but they didn't get any help. but again, so, the pilot is begging the airport to help him and he is a jetblue employee, so -- >> under the category of making matters worse, that's exactly -- >> right, but as far as these fines that could be levied against jetblue, maybe not because jetblue, you know, the pilot there, he apparently tried to do something about the situation but couldn't get anything done. >> that's right. i mean, the reality is, is once this is all figured out, there is that possibility that jetblue could face a fine. really, what it is from that passenger bill of rights is

$27,500 per passenger. if jetblue in the end is fined, which perhaps they won't be, it would amount to -- >> $5 million? >> $5.5 million for the airline. so we'll have to watch this and see what happens. but you're right, i mean, jetblue is firmly placing the blame on the airport, saying it's their fault. >> we'll see what happens. just ahead on "american morning," a global population milestone. now it's just you and 7 billion of your closest friends. "american morning" back after a break. ♪ we're centurylink ... we're committed to improving lives and linking americans to what matters most with honest, personal service... 5-year price-lock guarantees... consistently fast speeds ... and more ways to customize your technology.

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25 minutes past the hour. happy halloween. "minding your business" this morning, it's the final day of what could be a record-setting month on wall street. the s&p 500 is up 14%, the best monthly advance since 1974. australia's qantas airways resumes flights today, this after the airline grounded its entire fleet because of a labor dispute with its unions on saturday. 100,000 passengers were affected. the government ordering service to return to normal after warning the dispute could cause serious damage to tourism. bank of america may be ba back-pedali back-pedaling. cnn has learned the financial giant may soften its new policy to charge a $5 fee for using debit cards to make purchases. the plan was supposed to take effect in january, but boy, has there been an angry backlash. and now bank of america is looking at offering customers several options to avoid the fee. "puss in boots" earned the

top spot at the box office this weekend, raking in $34 million. the "schrek" spinoff follows puss on his journey to find magic beans and golden eggs. rounding out the box office was "paranormal activity 3" and "in time." "american morning" will be back after a break. sun life financialrating should be famous.d bad, we're working on it. so you're seriously proposing we change our name to sun life valley. do we still get to go skiing? sooner or later, you'll know our name. sun life financial. it's good. honey, i love you... oh my gosh, oh my gosh..

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>> 31 minutes after the hour. welcome back to "american morning." i'm alina cho along with carol costello. top stories now. 4 million people waking up without power after a nasty, surprise nor'easter this weekend. authorities say some people could be in the dark for days after heavy snow snapped tree limbs and ripped down power lines up and down the east coast. four u.s. troops were among the nine americans killed in a suicide bombing this weekend in afghanistan. saturday's attack in kabul also killed two british civilians and a canadian soldier. a diplomatic official says a car packed with explosives rammed into the side of an armored bus and a convoy. in less than 12 hours, nato's mission over libya officially ends, following a unanimous vote at the u.n. security council to formally end the seven-month military campaign. nato's secretary-general calls it one of the most successful operations in the history of the organization. a developing story this morning. herman cain's campaign hit by a report that two women filed

sexual harassment claims against him in the 1990s. those complaints reportedly came during cain's tenure as head of the national restaurant association, a lobbying group. according to politico, both women were paid cash settlements, and both women left their jobs. one of the reporters who broke this story is with us right now, jonathan martin, a politico senior political reporter, joining us live from arlington, virginia. good morning. >> good morning. >> i know you've been working on this story for quite a while. some people are confused about the specific allegations. what are they? >> well, there are reports of both physical and verbal actions by mr. cain he made physical gestures and also comments that made the women feel angered so much so that they complained to colleagues and senior officials at the organization about their treatment and subsequently left the organization with

five-figure cash payouts and nondisclosure agreements to not talk about what actually happened during their time at the organization. >> is that why you're not naming the women in the article? >> we aren't naming them for privacy concerns, but i would note that during the course of reporting this piece, over about three weeks, we've talked to dozens of individuals, current and former employees at the organization, current and former board members at the organization, and people here in washington who are close to this trade group. >> i'm just getting back into these allegations because people are confused about them. this did not involve any physical touching, as far as you know, and the only specific allegation that i saw is -- >> physical gestures. yeah, physical gestures and inappropriate language, too. >> and as far as specifics about the inappropriate language. in your article, one of the women was asked to go up to cain's hotel room? >> yeah.

one of the women at one point was asked by mr. cain to come to his hotel room, and she complained, the woman did, to a board member at the organization about that request, and she was one of the women who subsequently did leave the organization, got a cash payout. >> okay. and you gave herman cain's campaign ten days to respond to the story. then you decided to take matters into your own hands. you waited outside of the cbs studios yesterday. you confronted herman cain. let's play a bit of that confrontation and then we'll talk after. >> have you ever been accused of harassment? >> last one, guys. >> last question. last question. >> sir, have you? yes or no? have you ever been accused, sir -- >> i'm trying to -- >> -- of sexual harassment? >> that was the last question,

thanks. >> yes or no? >> so, herman cain didn't look very happy with you. >> well, he was given the chance, as you can tell from that clip to answer a very direct question -- have you or have you not ever been accused of sexual harassment? i asked that question four times. he did not say yes or no to that question and he, you know, was given the chance repeatedly. his campaign last night put out a statement after our story posted on the web, also not denying that he had ever been accused of sexual harassment. so, you know, we started talking to the cain campaign on october the 20th, some ten days before this story went live. e-mails, phone calls, we gave them the opportunity to respond. the first response was that these allegations were "settled amicably by all parties years ago." subsequently, a campaign spokesperson went press, said

he, the spokesperson, talked to cain, mr. cain vaguely recalled some episode and said that the general counsel at the organization dealt with the matter and that the campaign ought to talk to the general counsel at the organization. we wanted more details about what actually transpired with that general counsel. the organization has a personnel policy of not commenting on employees, and the cain campaign wouldn't say anything more. and so, yes, yesterday, as you showed there in that clip, i did go to the washington bureau of cbs news and asked mr. cain that very simple, straight-forward question, have you ever been accused of sexual harassment in your life? and he didn't answer the question. >> conservative republicans are saying that your article is a bit unfair because these allegations of inappropriate sexual language didn't involve touching, we don't know exactly what they are, the women aren't named in your article. >> yeah. >> listen to ann coulter and what she said on fox news. >> it's outrageous the way liberals treat a black conservative. this is another high-tech

lynching. it's not groping, it's not touching, it's not that he's demanding sex, it's that he had remarks that they found inappropriate. one is that he had inappropriate gestures that were not overtly sexual. well, what were they, then? this is an outrageous attack on a black conservative who's doing extremely well and i think will be our vice presidential candidate. >> so, is this an outrageous attack by the liberal press? >> look, i would direct your viewers to politico.com, to read our story in full. again, these women alleged in the late 1990s that mr. cain made unwelcome, unwanted, both physical gestures and verbal comments that made them feel uncomfortable, so much so that they confronted colleagues and senior officials at the organization. so, the story speaks for itself and it's at politico.com right now. >> and herman cain is set to speak at two big events in washington later today. will you be there? >> he is here in town today and

i'm looking forward to covering those events. >> all right. jonathan martin, thanks so much for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. ready for a good scare? when we come back, we'll be talking about politics and all those creepy characters on capitol hill. we're not talking about. >> not talking about halloween, not yet. >> no, creepy characters. we don't mean anybody like political figure. we're going to talk halloween and more with our contributor. "american morning" back after a break. and tastes simply delicious. for those of us with lactose intolerance... lactaid® milk. the original 100% lactose-free milk.

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it is 41 minutes past the hour. welcome back to "american morning." we've got more now on the developing story we're following today, herman cain forced to answer questions about alleged sexual harassment complaints back in the 1990s. it's a big story that was first reported yesterday by politico. we just spoke to one of the reporters who broke it, jonathan martin, and we want to give our john avalon a chance to weigh

in, too. john is a cnn contributor and senior political columnist for "newsweek" and "the daily beast." so, we've heard the allegations against herman cain. when he was head of the national restaurant association back in the 1990s, two women came forward and said that he was inappropriate. both of them signed these agreements and got five-figure cash settlements not to talk about these allegations. and herman cain is now finding himself in a position where he has to defend himself. so, let's play a bit of how he started to defend himself yesterday in front of cbs. jonathan martin confronted him and this is what he said. >> have you ever been accused of harassment? >> this is the last one, guys. >> last question. last question. >> sir, have you? yes or no? >> huh? >> have you ever been accused, sir -- >> i'm trying to -- >> -- of sexual harassment, have you? have you, sir?

>> that was the last question. thanks. >> yes or no? >> last question. >> have you ever been accused of sexual harassment? >> have a nice day. >> sometimes, it's all in how you respond to allegations. so, your initial impression of how herman cain responded in this case? >> not going to be used as a textbook of how you deal with these things in the future. look, these are serious allegations. right now, they are allegations, and it's made more complicated to get clarity on this because of the fact that these women allegedly signed agreements to not speak about it, but they are serious. i think the idea that this is a plot by the liberal press doesn't have any credibility to it. however, in addition to very good reporting by politico on this, this does sort of smack of opposition research by a competing republican campaign wanting to shine, you know, give discredit to herman cain. in any political situation like this, one of the truisms is you get ahead of the story, right? in the case of watergate, it's

not the crime, it's the cover-up, but in any communications, you want to get ahead of the story. that's clearly what they have not done. >> but it's funny because i have read articles that they knew these allegations would eventually come to light, and still, they were not prepared. >> for up to ten days. and that's -- i mean, this is clearly, it is a sensitive issue, it is a personal issue, but you need to address it, you need to deal with it. denial is not a strategy, you know, hope is not a strategy. so you need to deal with the fact that these issues are out there and get ahead of the matter and tell people the truth. put out all the information. until that, i mean, the fact that herman cain's in washington, d.c., today giving two high-profile speeches that were allegedly about policy, he's going to get a lot of attention today, but not because of the policy speech. >> no, because every question will be about those sexual harassment allegations. herman cain was also kind of beaten up by bob schieffer on cbs. it was a bad weekend for herman cain. it all stemmed from the weird campaign ad on the web with the smoking thing. let's listen to bob schieffer. >> we didn't know that it was going to be funny to some people

or whether they would ignore it or whatever the case may be. >> let me tell you, it is not funny to me. >> okay. >> i am a cancer survivor, like you. >> right. i am also. >> i had cancer that's smoking related. >> yes. >> i don't think it serves the country well, and this is an editorial opinion here, to be showing someone smoking a cigarette. and you're the front-runner now, and it seems to me as front-runner, you would have a responsibility not to take that kind of a tone in this. i would suggest that, perhaps as the front-runner, you'd want to raise the level of the campaign. >> okay, so, in that instance, i can hear herman cain saying, oh, get a sense of humor! and it all goes away. >> right. look, bob schieffer taking this personally. but i think people are making a little too much of the strategy behind the ad. i've spoken to the smoking man in the ad and i think this is not great strategy. this is simply, the guy smokes, he was smoking. there was an impulse to put it in the ad in part to get people to talk about it. mission accomplished. it was no way, shape or form an

endorsement of smoking. i don't think he's in danger of enticing a new generation of kids to start smoking because he's so cool. i don't think that's going to happen. look, the common denominator in all this at least is the fact that herman cain is the front-runner in many polls like iowa. he does have conservative support. that means you get a lot of criticism. look, this was a gonzo ad. there have been a lot of bad divisive, cynical ads, and we'll see a lot more of them going forward in this political season. this isn't one of them. this is a strange piece of film making that got a lot of buzz because it was hot. >> big picture. >> big picture. >> like these two issues together. herman cain is still leading in the polls in iowa and in south carolina -- >> oh, yeah. >> and he hasn't even campaigned in those states, right? >> that is true. >> which is weird. >> that is spooky. >> that is spooky, it is. so, what might these two issues do to his popularity in the polls among conservatives? >> look, you're not going to get accused of sexual harassment and have it go up in the polls. that's not going to happen.

this is no way, shape or form a good thing. that said, i mean, herman cain has been able to coalesce a lot of support because he seems like a genuine guy, a good guy. people respond to him and he has the authenticity that the other guy competing for front-runner status, mitt romney, doesn't seem to have. mitt romney has that ceiling among support among conservatives. it will be interesting to see what his conservative support does in the wake of these allegations, in particular evangelicals. >> i can think of clarence thomas. support among conservatives did not dhish at all. in fact, i think it rose because of the sexual allegations against him. can you compare the two or am i comparing apples and oranges? >> yeah, to use one of mr. cain's favorite metaphors. i think some people will try to run that narrative because that's the template we've got in our contemporary politics, when clarence thomas called a high-tech lynching. i think at the enof the day, these allegations need to be investigated on their own merits. but you know, what this will do to his conservative support has yet to be seen.

he does have a real reservoir. he's shown staying power. this is not a 15 second of fame blip. this is not the new incarnation of donald trump. this is a political phenomena and that's in part why he's taking a lot of heat at the moment. >> we'll see what happens later today. speaking at two big events in washington. >> big news of the day. happy halloween. >> john avlon, thanks as always. alina? >> thank you. it is 48 minutes after the hour. ahead on "american morning," profiting from the protests. an in-depth look at how people are hoping to make money off the occupy wall street movement. are you kidding me? we'll explain. "american morning" is back right after this. [ shapiro ] at legalzoom, you can take care of virtually

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and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. 50 minutes past the hour. here's what you need to know to start your day. parts of new england shoveling out from under 33 inches of snow on halloween after a nasty surprise nor'easter. 4 million people waking up without power this morning. a fatal explosion in a grain elevator in northeastern kansas this weekend. three people were killed and two more injured. three others are still missing. people three miles away felt the force. officials are investigating but they say grain dust is highly combustible. a great white shark attacks a surfer off the california coast saturday. 27-year-old eric tarantino was bit in the arm and the neck, but he managed to swim to shore and he's recovering in the hospital. and doctors say he's expected to be okay. a new concern for flooded

thailand. officials fear the widespread flooding could cause water and insect-borne diseases like malaria. so far, more than 370 people have died and flooding damages could top $6 billion. a symbolic birth in the philippines. a baby born overnight may have been the world's 7 billionth person. u.n. officials say it took just 12 years for the global population to go from 6 billion to 7 billion people. the president kicked off halloween a little early. a few lucky kids got a chance to trick or treat at the white house on saturday and meet the first couple. the u.s. census bureau estimates there were nearly 41 million trick-or-treaters across the united states last year. that's news you need to know to start your day. "american morning" is back after this.

it's 52 minutes past the hour. welcome back. this week we're reporting in depth on the occupy wall street movement. the protests began here in new york city and have now spread all across the country, and actually, around the world. >> that's it. though it seems to run counter to what the occupy movement is all about, there are some who are looking to capitalize on the opportunity. here's cnn's poppy harlow. >> reporter: you know what those are? they're trademark applications for this movement, occupy wall street. and this guy over here, you see him? he's one of the folks trying to trademark it. >> i made these t-shirts, just a few on the first day, and then i made about 20 on the second day, and then i realized that it's not very healthy to dispel tsme

fumes, so i got in touch with a silk screener. >> reporter: why trademark it? >> because when you go into a large order, you have to make a large investment and there is the chance of being sued, the potential. it didn't go through my head that it was a potential business thing. >> reporter: amazon is full of merchandise with that slogan, and an ebay search for "occupy wall street" brings up nearly 5,000 results. then there is ray agrazon who we found online. he's made several thousand bucks so far. >> if it's trademarkable, someone's going to trademark it and why not me? >> reporter: but can anyone trademark occupy wall street? it's not a brand name, at least not yet. >> one would order on the one hand it is just common words, it is the public domain, it's descriptive, but it does have a little ring to it that may very well pass muster with the trademark office.

>> reporter: if you get this trademark, are you going to keep it or are you going to give it to occupy wall street? >> i will give it to whatever legal structure that they organize, and they can do what they feel is best for it. >> reporter: down at ducati park, there is pretty big sentiment against trademarking occupy wall street. >> i think it belongs to the people and it's unnecessary to trademark it. >> it's a bit hypocritical it kind of counteracts to why we're here. >> reporter: what attracted you to this movement? >> separate money from politics. >> reporter: but robert maresca insists he doesn't want to profit from it and promises to funnel the money back to the movement. just how he plans to do that is another question. how do you think you could get the money that you might make off of this, if you get the trademark, how do you get it back to occupy wall street, if that's your goal? how does that work? >> well, i don't -- i'm not going to say that i had this big

giant business plan in my head. all i knew is that i was getting sick off of smelling fumes. >> reporter: you said that you would sell the trademark if you get it to occupy wall street, if that's possible, for a dollar. >> $1, yeah. >> sold! >> it's interesting to watch him down there talking with the occupy wall street protesters, who their first impression was no one should trademark this. and then as they spoke more and realized that robert wanted to give the money back to the movement, their tune sort of changed. but this is really interesting. what we also learned is that last week, occupy wall street the group filed for the trademark occupy wall street. they want to own it. the difference is they filed for the full name, street, and robert filed for "st." >> if there is no leader, who are the people filing for the trademark? >> pete dutrow, the finance committee member we spoke to weeks ago, he and another woman who help run the finances of the group, they're the ones we found on the trademark application who

applied for it. so, that is organized. they have a lawyer on board who also helped them, who we spoke with last night. but when you looked into this, it's not just that the trademark has been applied for occupy wall street, it's also for "we are the 99%," "i am the 99%," occupy d.c. 2012." you're seeing this across the board. an investing company also applied last week to try to get the occupy wall street trademark. so you're going to see a lot of fate fighting over who owns this, or is it going to be deemed public domain so no one should own it? we'll see. >> interesting. >> bound to happen. >> exactly. poppy harlow, thanks. >> sure. travel nightmares plaguing the east coast after a surprise snowstorm. jetblue passengers venting this morning after they were stuck without food, water or working toilets for seven hours. capital one's new cash rewards card

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cain controversy. gop candidate for president herman cain denying this morning reports that two women accused him of sexual harassment in the 1990s. october surprise. people cleaning up after a freak nor'easter slams the east coast. it may be days before millions get their power back. a milestone birthday. the world's 7 billionth person is born overnight. boy, it's getting crowded in here! and a healthy halloween? >> apple, that's no fun. >> candy is dandy, but all those halloween treats can haunt parents. how your children can survive the sugar rush on this "american morning." ♪ and good morning to you and happy halloween. it is monday, october 31st. welcome to "american morning." i'm carol costello. >> good morning, everybody, i'm alina cho. christine and ali are off today. up first, the herman cain campaign has a controversy on its hands this morning. according to a report by

politico, the republican front-runner was accused of sexual harassment by two women in the 1990s while he was head of the national restaurant association, a lobbying group. cain's camp is denying the report, calling it untrue and an unfair attack. early on "american morning," we spoke to jonathan martin of politico, one of the reporters who broke the story, and he detailed the accusations that have been made by one of cain's alleged victims. >> one of the women at one point was asked by mr. cain to come to his hotel room, and she complained, the woman did, to a board member at the organization about that request and she was one of the women who subsequently did leave the organization, got a cash payout. >> let's get the latest on the cain controversy from cnn deputy political director paul steinhauser. he joins us live from washington this morning. paul, cain has these two big speeches later on today in washington, d.c. i don't think reporters will be asking him about his 9-9-9

economic plan. >> reporter: no, i think that's a safe bet, carol. cain was confronted yesterday by martin. politico says they had been questioning cain or had been looking for answers on this story for ten days. so yesterday, cain on the talk shows here in washington, and jonathan martin asked him some questions. take a listen. >> i'm not going to comment about two people who you won't tell me who they are, okay? i'm not going to comment on that because, you know, i think that is one of those kinds of things that -- >> yes or no? >> thanks. >> last question. >> have you ever been accused of sexual harassment? >> reporter: okay, so that was sunday morning. let's fast-forward about 12 hours and the story breaking online. the campaign quickly put out a statement. j.d. gordon is communications director for the campaign who i reached out to. this is the statement they put out immediately after the story hit. "fearing the message of herman cain who is shaking up the political landscape in washington, inside the beltway

media have begun to launch unsubstantiated personal attacks on cain, dredging up thinly sourced allegations stemming from mr. cain's tenure as the chief executive officer at national restaurant association in the 9190s, political trade press are now casting as persians on his character and spreading rumors that never stood up to the facts. since washington establishment critics haven't had much luck in attacking mr. cain's ideas to fix a bad economy and create jobs, they are trying to attack him any way they can. sadly, we have seen this before, a conservative targeted by liberals simply because they disagree with his politics." that is one of the tactics the campaign is taking as they push back against these allegations. >> well, it's difficult to get more information on these allegations because the two women in question, i guess they settled on five-figure settlements, both of them left their jobs, and they're under orders as a requirement of those settlements not to talk about

the allegations. but when jonathan martin was questioning herman cain, he said he did not know who these women were, and that kind of defies logic, doesn't it? >> reporter: it does seem a little odd. now, we -- i think what's important today is how herman cain responds today. yesterday is one matter. now today he is aware of this story, his campaign is aware of this story, and as you mentioned, he's got two very high-profile events in washington. first this morning, a speech at american enterprise institute, which is a think tank, and later at noon, the national press club. he's got an event there as well. as jonathan martin said, he will be there, we from cnn will be there as well as members of the national press corps. how he today responds to these questions is very, very important and could be vital to the success of his campaign, carol. >> paul steinhauser reporting for us from washington, thank you. >> reporter: thank you. want to turn to shocktober or snowtober, as some are calling it? the halloween digout, the aftermath of a rare and deadly october nor'easter, the storm dumping wet, slushy, heavy snow

from maryland all the way to maine. close to three feet of it in parts of new england, leaving millions without power and forcing so many people to cover up their halloween costumes with coats. i hate that. >> i know. it kind of kills the whole idea of a costume at all, doesn't it? it was one of those weekends where travelers were in trouble, too. 48 passengers stuck on an amtrak train for 13 hours when a rockslide blocked the tracks in central massachusetts. train passengers were bussed to their destinations, finally, but it didn't happen until late yesterday afternoon. >> but as you said, at least they had a working bathroom. we're hearing stories that make it sound like they were in prison. we're talking about these plane passengers. one said he now knows what it's like to be incarcerated. here's what happened. passengers stranded on a jetblue flight for seven hours as the winds howled outside. they say it was hard to breathe, the toilets were backed up, no food, no water. just wait until you hear the cell phone calls from inside. we will play them for you. >> yeah, they're pretty

horrific. check out this ireport, time-lapse video of the storm from a backyard in oak ridge, new jersey, autumn turning to winter before your very eyes. the ireporter says he ended up with 16 inches of snow. he set his camera to take a picture every minute for seven hours on saturday. well, in some areas, people are being told it could be a week or more before they get their power back. chad myers is live in york, pennsylvania, this morning. chad, good morning. 750,000 people without power in that state. it is just unbelievable. what's the biggest problem there as you wake up this morning? >> reporter: the biggest problem, i think, is that people are waking up in very cold houses or they're waking up in hotel rooms right now and they're trying to put their lives back together. a lot of school districts have canceled or delayed the openings of the school. we are seeing a lot of frost on the windshields, temperatures down to 25 in our satellite truck this morning, when we did actually try to turn it on, so

that makes the car a little angry when you try to start it this morning. it's going to be a little stiff. i think, though, we're going to see the fog this morning, and that fog is going to at some point in time make black ice on the bridges and overpasses, and that black ice could have been a problem in philadelphia as well. we'll take you back to saturday morning at 3:00 a.m., philadelphia. this is actually bristol township, not that far from philly. i-95. 30 cars in a pileup. one car left the roadway and ended up landing on the roadway below. two people killed in this crash here and we know of many crashes, even here in the york county area, up toward bethlehem, on up toward lancaster as well. people simply were going too fast for conditions and then visibility was down to about nothing. so, for today, some airport delays. everything's going to be a little bit slow to go. many of the airplanes will have frost on top. if the frost is thick enough, they will have to deice those planes. that may slow you down 10 or 15 minutes for those deicers to come. haven't seen any real

significant airport delays yet, but i'm thinks as the big planes come in, that could slow you down. other than that, it's been a fairly decent morning. cars are moving. everybody is little more cranky than they should be on a monday morning, but they got through it, and now i think now it's just back to the recovery. let me be very honest, this snowstorm one month from now without leaves on trees is fairly irrelevant. >> right. >> reporter: a saturday or a sunday, fairly irrelevant. kids just go and play. but because the leaves are on the trees and power lines are down, at one point, 4 million customers were without power. that was the key to the storm, it was so early, not that it was so big. >> right. it's nice to see people out so early this morning, chad, but they're cranky because they haven't had a shower. chad myers, thank you. >> reporter: that, too. and they can't make coffee. >> that's right. we'll check back with you later. >> that would make me really cranky. more than 4 million people across the northeast are waking up in the dark this morning. it was the perfect storm as far

as power outages go. wet, heavy snow snapping tree limbs that didn't even have a chance to shed their leaves yet, and that made those limbs so much heavier. it's a mess of branches and power lines all over new england. so many spending a second night without either heat or electricity. utility crews are slowly making progress. joining me now is david graves, spoem spokesperson for the national grid, a utility company servicing parts of new england, including hard-hit massachusetts. he joins us live from rhode island. good morning, sir! >> good morning. >> so, more than 600,000 customers impacted in massachusetts. about half of them are part of the national grid. what's the latest on getting them back online? >> well, we were able to restore service to about 78,000 customers in massachusetts overnight. unfortunately, we still have about 340,000 customers without service, and that's really across the state from the berkshires all the way eastward into the suburbs of boston and up into the north shore.

we have crews that worked overnight to get those customers back up. more crews went out this morning at sunrise, at 6:00 a.m., and they're going to be working through the day. unfortunately, for some customers, we're looking at estimated restoration times of thursday, late thursday night, and they could be beyond that for some customers where the damage is most severe. >> okay. so, if i'm a customer who's looking at, what, thursday or maybe longer for my electricity to be restored, i'm pretty angry. and although i realize that it's difficult to get crews out in bad weather, i'm thinking, why weren't you more prepared for this before the storm hit? >> well, we were prepared. we began our planning process back on thursday of last week to make sure that we had all of our crews available to us and all crews did report on saturday afternoon. we also reached out to utility

crews, outside contractors, and we did have crews coming in on sunday from michigan, ohio, north carolina, and those will be supplemented today. our initial forecast called for about, the greatest accumulations out in western massachusetts of about a foot. they actually had about two feet of snow. as the accumulations were also much higher throughout other parts of our service territory. so, the storm was more severe than originally forecasted. we did have crews available to us. we still have those crews. we're adding to those crews now. what we had were thousands of trees that have come down. we've had in massachusetts alone 11,000 reports of wires down, just in massachusetts. and we also serve all of the state of rhode island but portions of new hampshire as well. so, the damage was significant and we're hearing it from every utility in the northeast. listening to your reports, i

think from pennsylvania up through new york state, connecticut into new england, every utility was hit very hard. >> david graves, spokesperson for the national grid, thanks for joining us this morning. and i do want to ask reynolds wolf, was the forecast correct? was the storm worse than expected? >> it was pretty much on the mark. the thing that's so unusual about it is just the timing of this. i mean, chad put it beautifully. this event takes place a month from now, it's really not that big of a deal. it is the time with the foliage on the trees, certainly a tremendous difference-maker. we have an idea of what happened over the weekend. obviously, we've been talking about that. let's talk about what's happening right now. first and foremost, many people along parts of the eastern seaboard waking up with a freeze warning in effect, especially parts of the jersey shore, eastern long island and portions of the delmarva peninsula with temperatures right at or below freezing in many spots. that's one big story we have going on. another thing that's happening this morning, much farther to the south in parts of florida, scattered showers are popping up.

in fact, some fairly heavy rainfall, especially in miami back over to ft. myers and tampa. and because the rain you have in florida, that's where you're going to have plenty of delays. in fact, let's show you some of those. miami, orlando and tampa, delays possibly, i'd say under an hour or so. might see the same in detroit due to scattered showers. san francisco, gusty winds might give you a wait or two on the tarmac. meanwhile, in the great lakes, we are seeing that low pressure and that frontal boundary, bringing rain to parts of detroit, scattered showers for parts of the central and northern rockies, maybe snow at the highest elevations. and out west, relatively dry with the exception of seattle and parts of, i'd say, yeah, probably in portland, might see some rain later on in the day. that's your forecast. hey, guys, your turn. back to you in new york. >> thanks, reynolds. still to come this morning, the world's population hitting an historic milestone, 7 billion and counting. and what do millionaire nba players and the occupy wall street protesters have in common? >> it ain't money. >> aren't they the 99% and the

1%? well, more than you think is the answer, and we'll explain. it's 15 minutes after the hour. the postal service is critical to our economy--

delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

18 minutes after the hour. our in-depth look at the occupy wall street movement this week. they're known for fighting against the 1 percenters, the very wealthy. so, what do they have in common with the well-paid, well-off stars of the nba? more than you think. our next guest says that. dorian warren is an assistant professor of political science at columbia university. he specializes in studying inequality in american politics. nice to see you. so, lebron james makes $16 million a year, he has a $90 million contract with nike, firmly in the 1%. >> yes, yes. >> but you actually say he has a lot in common with the occupy protesters. how so? >> well, he and his fellow players are raising grievances with the owners, much like the occupy wall street protesters are, saying around wall street thanks. record profits in the nba last year, yet the owners are saying they don't have enough money to

share with the players. so, the players are, unlike most american workers, staying strong in their union to say, no, we actually have a voice here and we have bargaining power and we're not going to let you get away with that. >> you mention the unions. in fact, you say the nba players have one significant advantage over the other 88% of workers in america, and that is, they belong to a union, right? >> that's right. >> and you say, actually, the disintegration of unions in this country has exacerbated the problem. >> that's right. in 1950s, one in three american workers was a member of a union. now it's less than 1 in ten. and so, i think that's related to the rise in inequality over the last few years of the declining unionization. and the nba players recognize this. so when governor scott walker of wisconsin, for instance, in february attacked public sector workers, the nba players union stood with those workers and defended union rights of all workers in this country, so -- >> what do you say to people who say unions are the problem, then? >> well, if they were the

problem -- and they have much more influence than you would imagine, right? 12% of the workforce. that's down from, again, 35% when we had shared prosperity and we had less inequality and more economic growth. so, you have two snapshots. when unions were strong, we were stronger as a country and more equal. unions are weak, more unequal, less economic growth, economic collapse. >> i read an article in the "the new york times" recently that stuck with me on the occupy movement, and one line -- and i'll read it -- "no matter how instructional media is in spreading protests these days, nothing tops people taking to the streets." when you see those pictures, and let's keep in mind, this has gone global -- >> right. >> it is extraordinary and you say this is a significant moment. >> this is a significant moment. i think we're seeing an emergence of a social movement of people actually making two kinds of claims. the first is that economic inequality and our economic system doesn't work for everybody. and second, that our political system is broken. and there's a link between both

of those things. the people that are benefiting from the economy get to buy their way in washington and that most average people, most average americans don't have a voice in the political system and don't have a future in the economy. >> let's talk about this because we're now two noonz the protests and there are some people who, frankly, still have a hard time understanding what it's all about. they know they're mad at the 99% -- i mean, at the 1%. >> right. >> and they're the 99%. but some have argued, critics have argued that they're not good on solutions, and that's part of the problem and maybe is that why they're not even, you know, a bigger presence and more significant in terms of our collective memory? >> well, i think it's important to put this in context. so, we're two months in, but the most successful movement of the 20th century, the civil rights movement -- rosa parks, montgomery bus boycott 1955. five years later, 1960, student sit-ins, next year, 1961, the freedom rides. we didn't get the civil rights act until 1964, and the voting

rights act until '5i6z. i'm not saying it will take ten years for the occupy wall street movement to see success, but broadly, it takes a while and we're only two months in. >> you're right, the civil rights movement, people are still fighting. >> yes, right. >> all right. dorian warren, thank you very much. an interesting perspective. >> thanks very much. >> i encourage people to read this, "the washington post" op ed from sunday. thank you. >> thanks very much. >> carol? still ahead, stories from inside a nightmare jetblue flight. passengers stuck on the plane for seven hours after it was diverted in a storm. food, water, even air running out. hear cell phone calls from passengers and the pilot pleading with the airport for help! then, trick-or-treaters on parade. kids will have their fill of candy and chocolate for weeks. what's a parent to do? elizabeth cohen has some advice. it's 22 minutes past the hour.

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26 minutes past the hour. "minding your business" this morning. it is the final day of what could be a record-setting month on wall street. the dow has climbed 11% in october and the s&p 500 is up 14%, the best monthly advance in 37 years. australia's qantas airlines resumed flights today, this after the airline grounded its entire fleet because of a labor dispute with its unions on saturday. 100,000 passengers were affected. a rough year for honda. the japanese auto giant says the net profit for the fiscal first half dropped more than 77%. two big reasons for the plunge -- the company's been dealing with the earthquake that devastated japan in march, and more recently, the flooding in

thailand. bank of america may be back-pedaling. cnn has learned the financial giant may soften its plan to charge customers a $5 fee for using their debit cards to make purchases. the plan was supposed to take effect in january, but because of an angry backlash, bank of america is looking at offering customers several options to avoid the fee. don't forget, for the very latest news about your money, check out the all new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" will be back after a break.

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good morning. it's 30 minutes past the hour. here are your top stories. the outgoing prime minister of libya's national transitional council says two sites containing chemical weapons have been discovered in his country. mahmoud jabreel says the hague and the u.s. have been notified. no details on the location of the sites or when they were

discovered have been released. in just over ten hours, the nato mission in libya officially comes to an end. that follows a unanimous vote by the u.n. security council last week to formally end the seven-month-long military campaign. nato's secretary-general calls it one of the most successful operations in the history of the organization. herman cain is denying a report that two women filed sexual harassment claims against him back in the 1990s. politico says those complaints came during cain's tenure as head of the national restaurant association and that both women were paid large cash settlements for their silence and then left their jobs. 4 million people waking up this morning without power after a nasty surprise nor'easter. authorities say some people could be in the dark for days after heavy snow snapped tree limbs and ripped down power lines up and down the east coast. well, passengers say it was downright degrading. one called it armageddon. another said it was like being incarcerated after they were stuck on a plane on the tarmac for seven hours during this

weekend's snowstorm. our susan candiotti has the stories from inside the plane. >> reporter: alina and carol, good morning. blinding snow in a freak october storm created havoc in the northeast, but one of the worst nightmares was for stranded passengers in hartford, connecticut. 23 planes were diverted to hartford, according to jetblue, which says 6 of the planes were theirs, stranding passengers on the tarmac for eight and nine hours. no food, water, bathrooms unusable. passengers did have cell phones and unleashed their fury. >> they're filled. they're totally filled. no one can go in them anymore. you just have to hold it. >> hours going in and out, bathrooms are locked. people will upset. >> reporter: the airline passengers bill of rights passed last year was supposed to prevent situations like this. among the requirements -- food, water and a clean bathroom within two hours of being stuck and the right to get off a stranded plane after three hours. in a statement, jetblue

apologized and says power outages at the airport made correcting problems difficult. the changes came after a february 2007 incident. passengers were stuck on a jetblue flight at jfk for eight hours. >> there was no power and it was h hot. there was no air. they had to open the actual plane doors so we could breathe comfortably. >> reporter: and now it appears history is repeating itself. >> it is absolutely unacceptable that the airlines and the airport did not manage to get these passengers off the plane. >> reporter: kate hanni fought for the bill of rights after being stuck on a plane herself five years ago. she now runs a website that advocates for passengers and says the airlines needed to cancel flights sooner. >> the flying public has overwhelmingly said they would rather have their flight canceled or be stuck inside an airport than they would like to be stuck inside an airplane. >> reporter: an airport spokesman did not respond to cnn's call seeking comment. the d.o.t.'s new regulation doesn't apply to airports.

>> hopefully, we can get airports added to the rule, because this is a real -- i knew when i talked to operations last night, i knew that they were scrambling and they knew they had screwed up royally. >> reporter: the d.o.t. says its passenger protection rule has virtually eliminated all delays of three hours or more. a spokeswoman says no airline has been fined since the new rule came out, but because of what happened this weekend in connecticut, the d.o.t. has just opened a new investigation. alina and carol? >> and passengers are probably saying that's a good thing because somebody needs to investigate the situation. for the first time, too, we're hearing audio from inside the cockpit of that flight, the jetblue pilot pleading for help, pleading with the airport to end this ordeal because he had a sick passenger and another passenger in a wheelchair. >> look, you know, we can't seem to get any help from our own company. i apologize for this, but is there any way you can get a tug

and a tow bar out here to us and get us towed somewhere, to a gate or something? i don't care. take us anywhere. >> do you need any paramedics or anything like that? >> no. we've got the fire truck over here, and i guess they have some medical background here. i'm not sure who all the players are back there in the back end, but it looks like they've got it covered. my priority right now is a tug and a tow bar. just give me a welding shop, i'll be willing to make one myself. >> but alas, they didn't even get him that. of course, that was like a joke. but he tried. >> i just can't imagine being stuck on that plane, but anyway -- >> with no bathrooms. >> no bathroom. and you were saying, you know, can't you just walk off the plane? i would have gotten off on the tarmac, too, snow or not. >> yeah, you could escort the people off the plane, they could slide down the chute, right? who cares. >> i would have slid down the chute in that situation. anyway. occupy wall street protests in new york city still going strong despite that nor'easter this weekend. these pictures from a cnn

ireporter show the protesters in zucani park hold up in tents. now, live pictures of zucati park, which has become the epicenter of the occupy wall street movement and you can see it really is an encampment. people only strengthens their resolve with the bad weather, digging in their heels and staying put. pursuing your passion is not always the best career move in a down economy. take the nba lockout, for example. according to reports, more than 400 jobs have been eliminated because of the labor dispute, and it's kind of tough to find a job with such a specialized set of skills. but in this week's "smart is the new rich," christine romans introduces us to a man who left the nba behind to coach kids. >> reporter: it's not the nba, but it's a job, and it turns out, david brown loves it. >> i have a great passion for working with kids. i have a great passion for the sport of basketball. >> reporter: brown, a former division 1 college basketball player, runs basketball stars of

new york, clinics and camps for kids. he launched the business this spring after leaving a job with the nba. >> freeze! freeze, freeze, freeze. >> reporter: brown says he's fortunate he's still working in basketball, given the league lockout and prospects for 400 more job losses. career coaches say pursuing a passion in the job market with 9.1% unemployment, it's a big gamble. >> i love passion. i think it's great. and you never want to take a job that you're going to despise or hate or not be pleased with. but i think, especially for people coming out of school, there's this almost romantic view of jobs and they're like, i want a job that i'm going to love every day! and the fact of the matter is, there's probably not many jobs that anybody loves every single day. >> reporter: after graduating from college, brown coached at the high school level and at two nondivision 1 universities. he loved the work, but the pay was tight. >> i didn't have the chance to really earn a real paycheck, sustain a living, so i had to go out for another opportunity and look for, you know, what my

mother would call a real job. >> reporter: brown got a job with the new jersey nets, selling ticket plans for games. he was eventually promoted to the team's marketing division. >> don't need to say it 50 times and waste your breath. >> reporter: but after two years on the job, he felt he ran out of room to grow. he and the team parted ways in the spring, but brown took what he learned and applied it to a new career, coaching kids. >> it's very important that you take stock of your current situation, you understand what your opportunities are in the areas that you're familiar with, but then stay active and also look at areas where you can transfer your skills, areas in industries where you can see growth. >> reporter: for now, he's happy to be working with kids again and having the opportunity to grow his business and pursue his passion for coaching. >> do what you love. if you do what you love, it's not going to be work, you're going to be successful. >> reporter: christine romans, cnn, new york. >> words to live by, i would say. >> do what you love. up next, want to say thank you to a real-life hero? why not donate your frequent

flyer miles to soldiers wounded in battle and their families? the amazing program is now expanding. we'll tell you about it and tell you how you can help, next. >> it's 39 minutes after the hour. in america, we believe in a future that is better than today. since 1894, ameriprise financial has been working hard for their clients' futures. never taking a bailout. helping generations achieve dreams. buy homes. put their kids through college. retire how they want to. ameriprise. the strength of america's largest financial planning company. the heart of 10,000 advisors working with you, one-to-one. together, for your future. ♪

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welcome back to "american morning." with the holidays just around the corner, what can you do to help hospitalized service members and their families get home? how about donating your frequent flyer miles to the hero miles program? we're joined by the chairman of fisher house, kenneth fisher, to talk about this. this program has been in place since 2003. tell us about it. what do you do? >> well, what we do is we have this program which is called hero miles. people can donate their unused

frequent flyer miles to us. we have a partnership with the airlines. we, in turn, will buy tickets for family members of those who have been wounded so that we can get them to the bedside of their loved ones. >> and it's for their families and close friends, as well, if they want to go and visit their loved ones in the hospital, right? >> that's correct. >> this was clearly born out of a need. >> oh, yes. well, you know, the burdens on these military families are such that the average american really has no concept of. and imagine the stress when their loved ones become wounded. so, bills don't stop coming, mortgages still need to be paid. the last thing these family members need to worry about is how am i going to afford a plane ticket, how am i going to afford to stay in a hotel for a period of time? >> and in eight years, what impact have you had? 25,000 tickets, right? >> we just made it to 25,000 tickets. >> unbelievable. and that's worth what, something in the neighborhood of $5 million or more?

>> it's approximately $35 to $40 million. >> my mistake. wow, that is incredible. now you're looking to expand the program, how so? >> we're looking to add a hotel component to hero miles, which means that, well, fisher house provides lodging at no cost as well. what we're looking to do is sometimes there is a waiting list to get into a fisher house. >> i'm sure the program has gotten big. >> yes, almost 150,000 families in 21 years. >> wow. >> but if they can't get into it, there is a waiting list to get in. we, usually what we do is we put them up in a hotel until a spot opens up in the fisher house. this would expand the program to allow that motel component. >> well, you know what surprised me is that you would think, or many people might think that you just introduced this idea of adding hotel stays, and boom, you do it and implement it, but it's not that easy. you do have to get government approval, don't you? >> well, technically, yes. it has to be legislated because

these are gifts, and these are government employees -- >> and service members are not allowed to receive gifts. >> that's correct. >> and so, there needs to be a special provision in the legislation to say, okay, this part of it is okay, too, in addition to the flights? >> that's correct. so, we say we're a public-private partnership with the government. that's how the lodging program works as well. >> i'm curious to know, i'm sure you've spoken to many service members and their families over the years. what do they say about what kind of impact this has on them and their lives, to be able to not have to worry about paying for a flight when they're wounded and just back from battle? >> it's the most humbling experience one could ever imagine. that these family members and servicemen and women who have given so much to this nation come and thank us, and it's them that deserve the thanks. they are the ones that are doing what they believe is their duty, and that is to defend this

nation. >> and very quickly, for all of those people out there who are thinking to themselves, you know, i've got a lot of miles in my account, maybe i want to donate, how do you do that? >> go to our website, fisherhouse.org. we have a hero miles section on the website. that will tell you what you need to do. >> fantastic. i think i might do that after the show. thank you very much. it was a pleasure talking to you about this program. >> thank you. >> and what a good deed you're doing. >> thank you very much. >> congratulations and good luck expanding. your morning headlines are next. plus, guess what the obamas handed out to trick-or-treaters at the white house this halloween? we'll tell you. it's 46 minutes after the hour. [ male announcer ] it's true...

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and launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com we put the law on your side. 47 minutes past the hour. here are your morning headlines. stocks are poised to end october with one of the best monthly performances on record. the s&p 500 up 14% this month. it's the best monthly performance in 37 years. but right now, the dow, nasdaq and s&p 500 futures are all down, suggesting a lower open at the bell. a denial from herman cain after a report by politico that says two women filed sexual harassment claims against him in the 1990s when cain was head of the national restaurant association. both women were reportedly paid cash settlements for their silence before leaving their jobs. cain's camp calls the story untrue and an unfair attack. parts of new england shoveling out from under 33 inches of snow on halloween

after a nasty surprise nor'easter. 4 million people waking up without power this morning. jetblue reportedly facing millions of dollars in fines after leaving passengers stranded on a plane for seven hours on the tarmac in hartford, connecticut. passengers say it was hard to breathe and the toilets were backed up. a great white shark attacks a surfer off the california coast on saturday. 27-year-old eric tarantino was bit in the arm and the neck but managed to swim to shore. he is recovering in the hospital and he is expected to be okay. wegmans supermarket chain recalling turkin pine nuts that may be tainted with salmonella. the pine nuts have been linked to 43 cases of salmonella poisoning in new york, pennsylvania, new jersey, virginia and maryland between july 1st and october 18th. 7 billion and counting. the u.n. expects the world's population to hit the 7 billion mark today. that's a billion more than just

12 years ago. and the spirit of st. louis. thousands of fans lined the parade route in st. louis on sunday to honor the world series champion cardinals. the cards beat the texas rangers to win the 11th world series tithe in franchise history. and that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back after a break.

beautiful morning in washington. but it is a chilly one. it's mostly cloudy and 37 degrees. wow. >> and only going up to 56 today. >> but i'm not complaining, because further up the coast

issue it's pretty nasty. >> you're right. it's worse. >> welcome back. kids in the nation's capital braved the wet and cold weather for a real treat courtesy of the president and the first lady. they handed out goody bags to the white house trick or treaters. the bags included a mix of dried fruit, m&ms with the presidential seal, and baked cookies shaped like the white house. >> cool. >> that is pretty cool. the lucky kids came from local elementary schools, the boys and girls club, and military families. >> many of them probably didn't even realize that was the president and the first lady. but a treat for them, definitely. trick or treaters all over will hit the ground running this afternoon, if they can. if there's not too much snow. but parents know it could be weeks before their kids go through that entire candy stockpile. senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen is joining us now from atlanta with some tips on keeping kids healthy and their teeth in tiptop shape. elizabeth, is it even possible? i mean, these kids come back with huge bags of candy.

it's going to be like i said weeks before they get through it. how do they do that? >> some lucky kid might come home with this much, right? >> that's right. >> my philosophy as a mom has always been, that first night, i just let them go to town. you know, they have just been out trick or treating. running around. i make sure they go out for a while to get some exercise. and then after that, we portion it out. every other night. but it's a one-night thing. it's exciting. it's just -- you know, i just let them go. but there is one thing that i always do, and i make sure they brush their teeth right afterwards. and that's really the key. halloween really in some ways can be a nightmare for your teeth. and there are a couple of things in particular. these gummy kinds of candies. i'm sure you've seen those. those can be terrible for your teeth because stuff gets stuck in them. raisins. certain things about them are go for your health, but they also can get stuck in your teeth. and hard candies. when you suck on these, they stay in your mouth for a long

time. and it can turn the saliva very acidic, and that can also be bad for your teeth. so you can eat, but just brush right away. >> so the sour patch kids i eat all the time, i should probably stay away from. >> brush your teeth right away. >> as i open a three musketeers, by the way. not a good example. childhood obesity is such a big problem in this country. is there anything that parents can really do to have their kids avoid eating too much of this stuff? >> people use different tactics. i know some moms who portion it out, and tell them five pieces tonight, and that's it. and they do little baggies with just the right amount that they want them to eat. other people do what i do, which is say hey, for one night, it's really not going to matter what a kid does on any one night. but then on the rest of the nights, we're going to be careful. but i think it really is just limiting it and talking about this as a special occasion, as a holiday, and not something we do all the time. >> you know, the bad thing about elizabeth, she's got all that candy in front of her and she'll ration it out to the staff.

you can only have one piece and brush your teeth right after. >> right. exactly. >> but here's the problem. you know this. you put food out in a newsroom, forget it, it's gone like that. >> like a feeding frenzy. >> it will be gone in minutes. right. >> this will go quick. >> great, elizabeth. i'm going to eat this three musketeers now. >> enjoy. top stories are next, including sexual harassment allegations against presidential hopeful herman cain. we have i live report. and where do nba talks go now? we're asking "sports illustrated." we'll also ask this reporter about tebowing. because tebowing was a taunting factor in the lions-broncos game. >> you know all this stuff. when you have diabetes... your doctor will say get smart about your weight. that's why there's new glucerna hunger smart shakes. they have carb steady, with carbs that digest slowly

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the storm that postponed halloween. good morning, everybody. i'm alina cho. people are digging out from a freak snowstorm that socked the east coast. herman cain caught up in controversy. i'm carol costello. a new report says two women accused him of sexual harassment back in the '90s, and were paid to keep silent. how the candidate is countering those charges on this "american morning." good morning, everybody. it's monday, october 31. happy halloween. >> whoo hoo! i have my little skeleton bracelet. >> yes, you do. paying homage to the holiday. ali veshi and christine romans are off today. >> up first this morning, record snowfall. millions without power this morning. and five people are dead. and it's not even november. the east coast stunned by a rare and deadly october nor'easter.

>> that's right. the storm dumping wet, slushy, heavy snow from maryland all the way to maine. close to three feet of it in parts of new england. it's the kind of snow that makes trees buckle and brings down power lines. the storm is literally postponed halloween in parts of new england. the "boston globe" is reporting that some towns have actually rescheduled the holiday for november 4. don't tell that to the kids. local officials say they don't want the kids to be out with so many power lines down. >> and more than 1 million people are still waking up this morning without electricity. power crews are out all the way from west virginia to massachusetts. officials are saying it could be a week before everyone is back online again. in connecticut, the governor said this storm broke a state record for blackouts. >> and that record was set back in august with hurricane irene, so it's been a crazy couple of months. chad myers is live for us in york, pennsylvania, this morning. what's it like where you are? >> reporter: you know, people are moving. good morning, guys.

people are moving now this morning. it isn't so bad. this is what's left of our saturday snowman. doesn't really make it through yesterday. it was almost 50 degrees here yesterday. that allowed power crews to kind of get a head start. a bit of a jump-start on getting these power lines up. it was only an eight-hour storm here. but in those eight hours, they got eight inches of snow, piled up on those leaves, and the branches came down. now they are in a triage unit here. if we can put up one power line, says the power company, and get 150 to 200 people back online, that's going to be the priority line. if we put up a line and it only puts up your house back online, you're going to be way down the bottom of the totem pole. it will take a long time for us to get to you. some people think they won't get power until wednesday. >> wow. >> this could take a long time to get back up. >> absolutely. >> reporter: how many days, do you think? >> i'd say probably wednesday. we've got a lot of crews coming in from other areas, other states. >> reporter: i see the

windshield is a mess. it's smashed. what did that feel like? >> well, you're just looking at it, and it's the sound of the tree falling on the car scares you. and it didn't break, so i didn't get any glass in my face. it shattered and the mirror is hanging down. i couldn't even see the back windshield through the mirror. >> reporter: does it make you think about driving under trees or even trying at all? >> yes. i debated turning right and going home whether i made that trip yesterday or not, and i didn't, and it was a mistake. >> reporter: i've never had anything like that at all fall on my car. except maybe a hailstone when i lived in oklahoma. but a tree falling on your car when you're driving? that probably put a little bit of a shudner that man. it's going to be ok today. we're going to get things back on. all the hotels are again sold out here because people don't expect to have power. and what could have been an empty couple of days in these hotels has turned out to be a boom.

the only trouble is the people that weren't anticipating spending $100 or $150 to sleep in a hotel for a couple of days. now there's a $300 to $500 hit in the wallet. and that may take a bite out of christmas. back to you. >> in this economy, not what they wanted to deal with. chad meyers, thank you very much. reynolds, you know, chad was talking about this earlier. because this storm happened in october, and not, say, december or january, that's really what made it such a big deal, right? >> no question about it. that's a great point. one of the amazing things is, say you've an average tree that's 40 feet in height. when you have a lot of leaves and of course you have the moisture to add here to it in a freezing type situation, tree that stands 40 feet may have up to three tons of snow and ice on it. it stands to reason that you'd have some tree damage. and with the branches falling, that causes power outages. many people obviously without heat and power this morning,

especially in parts of the jersey shore. morning lows are still in the 20s and 30s. warnings are still in effect. and certainly some delays if you're just driving around trying to get from point a to point b. also some delays at the airports, especially in parts of south florida, if you're trying to get through, say, orlando, tampa, or miami. just an under hour or so of delays. in detroit, that delay can be expected later on. same situation because of scattered showers, maybe a thunder boomer. in san francisco, the gusty wind conditions. but the rain in detroit will be caused by another area of low pressure. this frontal boundary that will extend well over 1,000 miles drifting from west to east when it makes its way across southern michigan. yeah, you're going to have some thunderstorms and maybe some rain into the afternoon. scattered showers in the central and northern rockies. snow possible in the highest elevations. now and for the most of the west coast, looks good there and in a few places. rain up towards parts of seattle.

four corners, sunny and warm. in terms of warm conditions, warm for you in the desert southwest. albuquerque, 78 degrees. 68 in dallas. check out the northeast. yes, those temperatures will be rebounding. 50s in boston, new york, and washington, d.c. atlanta with 62. tampa and miami into the 80s. that's your forecast. you're up to speed. now it is your turn in new york. >> thanks, reynolds. i don't know where i'd rather be. i think miami. good news followed by bad news for herman cain and his campaign this weekend. cain's number one in the latest iowa poll, and that's the good news. the bad news, according to a report by politico, cain was accused of sexual harassment by two women in the 1990s while he was head of the national restaurant association. cain's campus denying the report, calling it unfair and untrue. earlier on "american morning," one of the politico reporters who broke the story elaborated on the claims of one of cain's alleged victims.

>> there are reports of both physical and verbal actions by mr. cain. he made physical gestures. also verbal comments that made these women feel uncomfortable. made them feel awkward and angry. and so much so actually that they complained to both colleagues and senior officials at the organization about their treatment. and subsequently left the organization with five figure cash payouts. and nondisclosure agreements to not talk about what actually happened during their time at the organization. >> let's get the latest on the cain controversy from cnn's deputy political director paul steinhauser joining us live from washington this morning. and this is one instance where cain's charm may not work, paul. >> you're right. polls indicate that among republicans, he's got a lot of likeability. they do like him a lot. but how he answers the questions here will be crucial. now, sunday morning, yesterday morning, he was on the sunday talk shows and that reporter you just had there, jonathan martin

from politico, questioned herman cain about the story. take a listen. >> i'm not going to talk about two people that you won't tell me who they are, ok? i'm not going to comment on that, because, you know, i think that that is one of those kinds of things that -- >> reporter: last question. >> have you ever been accused of sexual harassment? >> fast forward about 10 hours, and politico goes out with the story. when i saw it, i contacted the cain camp. this is the message they put out.

>> a couple of things about that statement. first of all, there was no denial of the allegations. but also you heard phrases like inside the beltway media, and prominent conservatives attacked by liberals. it seems that the tack the cain campaign is trying to do is turn it against the story teller and saying it's the liberal media going after a conservative. we saw ann coulter coming out to protect and defend cain last night. >> she called it a high-tech lynching, much like clarence thomas' nomination process. that was supposedly a high-tech lynching. we'll see if it sticks. paul steinhauser live in washington. >> thank you. >> paul, thank you. ahead on "american morning" -- profiting from the protests. an in depth look at how people

are hoping to make money off the occupy wall street movement. and if you're jonesing for nba basketball, you'll have to wait another month at least. of course the entire season may now be in jeopardy. we'll talk with a "sports illustrated" writer about the lockout and whether there's any real progress. and baby makes seven billion. it's a major milestone for the world's population. but what does it really mean for you and me? we'll break it down for you. i'm it's nine minutes after the hour. 'm it's nine minutes after hour. it's nine minutes after t hour. it's nine minutes after th hour.

it is 12 minutes past the hour. welcome back. it's the incredible shrinking nba season. with league owners and the players union unable to reach a deal to end the lockout, commissioner david stern has now cancelled all games through november 30. so where do they come from here? is the entire season in jeopardy? john wortham, senior "sports illustrated" writer, joins us

this morning. as i understand it, there's just one big issue that has not been resolved, and that would be revenue sharing. and of course the league says it's lost hundreds of millions of dollars. and the players say not so fast. we want more of the share of the overall profits. who's in the right here? >> well, splitting up revenue is tricky business. and these teams seem to be losing money but the value of the franchises keep going on. so the players are saying you may have a little loss year on year, but look at the value here. so the players have come down. they were getting about 55%. they are now around 52%. each of those percents is about $40 million a year. so the players have said, look, we have already taken about a $1 billion off the table over the course of the deal. the owners want about 50/50. and that's where we are now. the game of chicken begins. >> there is a wide chasm are or they close to a deal?

>> well, it represents hundreds of millions dollars. the players have said we're not going any lower, and the owners have said we're not going higher. it's a game of chicken. and we'll see what happens. the nfl was able to get it done at the 11th hour. basketball has not. we have already lost a month. we'll see. >> how are the fans feeling? are they angry or just sort of like, whatever? >> that's an interesting question, because, you know, basketball does not have the same place in the culture that football does. i think in football, there was more sim athy for the players because what they are doing is violent, they get hurt. this is interesting. i think objectively if you look at this, the owners appear to be the ones who are a little bit more intransigent. on the other hand, i think a lot of fans can't get past the point these guys are getting millions to play the game. the owners get paid billions, but they are going to work and wearing a tie. for a lot of fans it's hard to sympathize with the players. >> oh, yeah, especially in this economic climate. we have 9.1% unemployment in

this country. it's like get real, play ball. let's turn our attention to football now. i can't let a day go past without talking about the detroit lions. i am a lions fan, i'll say that up front. but the lions played the broncos. tim tebow is like this huge star. and one of the reasons he's liked is because, well, is because of his christianity. he has a lot of really passionate fans. and during the game, which the lions won 45-10, it was a huge blowout, some of the lions were taunting tim tebow because there's this new thing called tebowing where you drop to one knee, pray to the heavens that you're going to pull it out at the last minute. >> in fairness, after they tebowed, they sort of said it was all in good fun, and he was very gracious and said no worries. i find this whole thing fascinating. sheer a quarterback -- this is sort of faith-based based reality-based on the football field. a lot of fans and players roll their eyes say he is too pious and not that good of a player.

he is barely a starter. we'll see what happens next week. one of the highest selling jerseys. this wildly popular player. and it's really interesting to see how this plays out. players were sort of mocking him yesterday. and it was all in good fun. as you said, not a great game for tim tebow. but on the other hand, a week earlier he had this dare we say miraculous finish that sort of justified all of his fans' belief? he had this tremendous game against miami, won dramatically. yesterday not as good. but it's interesting to see how this player marginal statistically but the huge following. >> there's a whole website dedicated to tebowing. it's sort of like the planking phenomenon. there are people tebowing in many odd places throughout the world. see it right there? it's just like this fascinating phenomenon. but it leaves the denver broncos in this difficult place. tim tebow is so popular hes inspired this kind of thing.

so heaveven though he was so aw in that game, will they be forced to start him again next week? >> if you read the coach's remarks, it seems like the ride may be over for a while. a lot of grass stains for tebow yesterday. but it really is something to contend with. and i wonder, does this huge fan following that he has, has that influenced whether he got a few starts this year? again, it's just as an observer fascinating to watch this unfold. >> seven sacks for tim tebow. it was bad. it was so bad. thank you so much for coming in this morning. we appreciate it, as always. alina? up next, stocks. buckle in for a bumpy ride. we'll check in on the early morning markets. plus, what's the best place to work and why? is it the money or is it something else? we'll explain. it's 18 minutes after the hour. a improves skin's health in one day, with significant improvement in 2 weeks. i found a moisturizer for life. [ female announcer ] only from aveeno.

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automaker honda. net profits are down 77% from last year. the march earthquake in japan that interrupted production and record flooding in thailand that forced plant closings contributed to the decline. u.s. markets are poised to post one of their best months ever. so far in october, the s&p 500 is up 14%. that's the best month of performance since 1974. but the dow, nasdaq, and s&p 500 futures are all sharply lower this morning, suggesting a lower opening at the bell. according to a survey of 43 leading economists, the european debt crisis will remain a big threat to the global economy in 2012. and will hurt growth in the united states. but those experts also see less risk of a new recession. the best multinational company to work for in the world, microsoft according to a new survey. employee trust was the biggest factor. rounds out the top five, s.a.s., netapp, google, and fedex.

the ctop companies have three traits in common. "puss in boots" raked in $43 million. "paranormal activity 3" and "in time" rounded out the top three. it's one of the biggest uprisings in generations, and now someone wants to own it. the battle to trademark occupy wall street is next. and passengers trapped aboard a jetblue plane for seven hours. we'll play the audiotapes as the pilot pleads for help. and now, how can jetblue make this right again? "american morning" is back after a break. [ horn honks ]

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fair skies. only 38 degrees. chilly outside. bu but we're headed for a high of 5 58 degrees. >> i love me a little jay-z and alicia keys in the morning. welcome back to "american morning." live picture of new york city. this is of course where it all started, the occupy movement. thousands of occupy wall street protesters remain camped out this morning, despite that freak nor'easter over the weekend. remember the protests began here in new york city. they spread across the country and around the world. more than 80 countries. and although it seems to run counter to what the occupy movement is all about, some may actually be trying to profit from the protests. >> poppy harlow is here to tell us all about it. >> it's an interesting development that had to happen, right? it is one of the biggest activist uprisings in generations. and it took only a few weeks for someone to want to own part of it. take a look. you know what those are?

they are trademark applications for this movement, occupy wall street. and this guy over here, you see him, he's one of the folks trying to trademark it. >> i made these t-shirts just a few on the first day. and then i made about 20 on the second day. and then i realized that it's not very healthy to smell the fumes so i decided to get in touch with a silk screener. >> reporter: why trademark it? >> well, because when you start to go into a large order, you have to make a large investment. and the chance of being sued, the potential is there. it did not go through my head that it was i potential business thing. >> reporter: amazon is full of merchandise with that slogan. and an ebay search for occupy wall street brings up nearly 5,000 results. and then there's ray, a self-titled entreprotester we found online. >> it's trademarkable. someone is going to trademark

it. is why not me? >> reporter: but can anyone actually trademark occupy wall street? it's not a brand name. at least not yet. >> one could argue on the one hand that it's just common words in the public domain, just descriptive. but it does have a little ring to it that may very well pass must are you wier with the trad office. >> reporter: if you get this trademark, are you going to keep it or give to occupy wall street? >> i will give it to whatever legal structure that they organize, and they can do what they feel is best for it. >> reporter: down here, there is pretty overwhelming sentiment against owning the occupy wall street trademark. >> i think it's something that belongs to the people and it's unnecessary to trademark it. >> it's a bit hypocritical and kind of counteracts why we are here. >> reporter: what brings you here? >> to separate money from politics. >> reporter: but robert insists he doesn't want to profit from it. and promises to funnel the money back to the movement.

just how he plans to do that is another question. how do you think you could get the money that you might make off of this if you get the trademark, how do you get it back to occupy wall street if that's your goal? how does that work? >> well, i don't -- i'm not going to say that i had this big giant business plan in my head. all i knew was that i was getting sick off the smelling fumes. >> reporter: you said that you would sell the trademark if you get it to occupy wall street if that's possible for a dollar. >> for $1. yeah. >> cool. >> sold! >> to give you a little background on robert mareska, he said the reason he is so attracted to the movement is to get money out of politics but his main goal is voter registration. he wants to rally the public and rally the mass to register to vote, to have some more say in politics so it's not all about money. in terms of this, this is interestinging, he applied for occupy wall street st period.

we found out that last week the group occupy wall street applied for the full occupy wall street trademark, and so did a california base the investment group. so this is going to be fascinating to watch. >> a california based investment group? >> sure. it's big money. robert says he'll give the money back. wall street wants to own its own name. and then so does an investment group in california. >> i bet that investment group in california won't give the money back. >> this will take two to three months to see if the trademark goes to anyone or if it's deemed public domain. meanwhile, you can get your t-shirts on ebay, amazon, all over the place. >> it's just a matter of time. thanks, poppy. >> sure. herman cain is denying a report that two women filed sexual harassment claims against him in the 1990s. politico says they came during his tenure as head of the national restaurant association and both women were paid large cash settlements for their

silence and left their jobs. 4 million people waking up without power after a nasty surprise nor'easter. authorities say some people could be in the dark for days after heavy snow snapped tree limbs and took down power lines up and down the east coast. a state of emergency declared in the state of massachusetts. 540,000 people are waking up without power. and joining us now is governor duval patrick. governor patrick, thank you so much for joining us. i know that you are en route to framingham emergency management right now to give a briefing at 9:30 in the morning, about an hour from now. can you give us a preview of what you'll say? >> well, first of all, good morning. and i'm glad you guys have power. we're down to about half a million people from a high of 700,000 who are still without power after being hammered on saturday night with in some places up to two feet of heavy, wet snow. the roads are pretty clear. the main roads are in great

shape. but many of the secondary roads have still downed limbs and lots of downed wires. so i'm going out to have a sitdown with the executives from the utility companies just to review once again their plans, the numbers of crews they are bringing in and their forecast for getting people back up and running. >> governor patrick, this is carol costello. >> hi, carol. >> hi. how are you? you're up early this morning and i can see why. so many people without power. some of them may not have power for a week or maybe more. we don't know. how satisfied are you with how prepared the utility companies were for this storm? >> well, i think the utility companies have all put on extra crews. they've had -- they are bringing in crews from as far away as louisiana and michigan. there's some 1,500 crews out now, and another 350 coming in from out of state. and we've got as many as 700 national guard as well as many

members of state agencies helping out with the tree removal. the biggest issue here, carol, is that because the leaves are still on many of the trees, and the snow was heavy and wet, we've just had limbs and in some cases w cases whole trees just snapping in half and coming down on wires. so rather than having a transmission line that once repaired restores a whole neighborhood, this is really a house-by-house operation. >> well, and you speak to those trees just being so heavy with leaves and the wet snow. and we're seeing that playing out all through the northeast. having said that, one national weather service forecaster said 15,000 years ago in the ice age, this would have been ok. but for modern times, this is a really big deal. it's really incredible. and, you know, residents are just really, really frustrated in your state and elsewhere. what kind of advice do you have for them to get through this over the next few days? >> well, first of all, it's

important that people be careful. i am asking people to treat a downed wire as a live wire until they are able to establish that it is not. i know people are anxious to get on with their lives. but it's important that they are patient and they give the utilities folks a chance to do their jobs. this is not going to be -- i don't think we're talking about weeks. it probably is days. and as i say, they have made progress in restoring about a quarter of the people who were out of power just overnight. so we want to continue that progress. and it looks like we'll have a few sunny warm days or relatively warm days to make the progress. >> gosh, i hope so. governor patrick, thank you so much for joining us this morning. and we'll monitor your 9:30 a.m. eastern presser. >> they have even postponed trick or treating in several towns in massachusetts including worcester to november 4. so anyway, poor kids out there. let's hope your parents give you some candy or something

meantime. let's talk about the airlines. because they were in trouble too because of the storm. passengers say it was downright degrading actually on a jetblue plane. 200 people were stuck on that plane on the tarmac for seven hours during this weekend's snowstorm. susan has the story from inside that jetblue plane. >> good morning. blinding snow in a freak october storm created havoc in the northeast. but one of the worst nightmares was for stranded passengers in hartford, connecticut. 23 planes were diverted to hartford, according to jetblue, which says six of the planes were theirs. stranding passengers on the tarmac for eight and nine hours. no food, water, bathrooms unusable. passengers did have cell phones and unleashed their fury. >> they're filled. nobody can go in them anymore. you just have to hold it. >> bathrooms are locked. people are quite upset.

>> reporter: a department of transportation rule enacted last year called the passengers bill of rights was supposed to prevent situations like. this among the requirements, food, water, and a clean bathroom within two hours of being stuck. and the right to get off a stranded plane after three hours. in a statement, jetblue apologized, and says power outages at the airport made correcting problems difficult. the changes came after a february 2007 incident. passengers were stuck on a jetblue flight at jfk for eight hours. >> there was no power, and it was hot. there was no air. they kept having to open the actual plane doors so we could breathe. >> reporter: and now it appears history is repeating itself. >> it is absolutely unacceptable that the airlines and the airport did not manage to get these passengers off the plane. >> reporter: kate hanni fought for the bill of rights after being stuck on a plane herself five years ago. she now runs a website that advocates for passengers, and says the airlines needed to cancel flights sooner. >> the flying public has

overwhelmingly said they would rather have their flight cancelled or be stuck inside an airport than they would like to be stuck inside an airplane. >> reporter: an airport spokesman did not respond to cnn's calls seeking comment. the d.o.t.'s new regulation doesn't apply to airports. >> hopefully we can get airports added to the rule, because this is a real -- i knew when i talked to operations last night, i knew that they were scrambling and they knew they had screwed up royally. >> reporter: the d.o.t. says its passenger protection rule has virtually eliminated all delays of three hours or more. a spokeswoman says no airline has been fined since the new rule came out. but because of what happened this weekend in connecticut, the d.o.t. has just opened a new investigation. alina and carol? >> thank you, susan. >> and there's the thing. jetblue may not have been to blame for this. it might have been the airport itself in hartford, connecticut. and jetblue kind of has this evidence because the pilot onboard that plane stuck on that

tarmac begged the airport for help. listen. >> it's just unbelievable. if it's found that the airline is at fault, what, $27,000 fine per passenger. >> $5.5 million with the 200 passengers onboard. it's incredible. listen, beyond placing the blame, just a nightmare for those passengers to be stuck on that plane. no food, no water, no bathroom.

you know -- >> apparently the planes were diverted to hartford from other airports and it couldn't handle all of the extra planes it. didn't have enough equipment to get the people off the planes. i don't know. it will be interesting to see what happened. >> we were talking about this earlier. the pilot pleading for help. just put out the chute. >> slide down the chute and just get out of there. >> just get out. anyway, a big mess. it's a glamorous magazine aimed at black readers. and now "jet" magazine is celebrating its 60th anniversary with barack obama on the cover. no easy feat considering the impact the internet has had on magazine sales. up next, the ceo joins us live with a look at how the magazine is celebrating african-americans living the dream. 39 minutes after the hour. at exxonmobil we know the answer is yes. when we design any well, the groundwater's protected by multiple layers of steel and cement.

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"jet" magazine, the pocket-sized publication, broke cultural ground as a magazine aimed at african american readers. and now it has reached a major milestone. 60 years in the business. congratulations, "jet."

the new anniversary edition celebrates african-americans living the dream, and who better than to feature the president of the united states on the cover there. joining us now is my friend desiree rogers, the ceo of johnson publishing, which publishes "ebony" and "jet." great to see you, by the way. >> good morning. >> you know, when you look at all of the covers over the years and you see people like martin luther king, jesse jackson, michael jackson featured 40 times on the cover, including when he died. and that was the best-selling issue of all time. take me back to the early days of "jet." what was the mission back then and what is it now? >> the mission early on was really to give black americans a view of what was happening in our communities really across the country and even across the world. the first issue had something as silly as, you know, 10 ways to buy a mink coat and what was happening with billy eckstien, a great singer at the time. so we have done news and entertainment throughout the years. >> but the mantra -- our good

friend soledad o'brien used to say to me, if you weren't in "jet" you hadn't made it yet. >> that's how the neighborhood felt. >> and i asked, why is this the case? and she said it was in every hair salon, it was everywhere. and your friend, the chairman, linda johnson rice, says if it didn't happen -- if it wasn't in "jet," it didn't happen. >> that's really what people thought. i was with ed lewis recently who started another magazine. and he said if it wasn't in "jet," honey, it didn't happen. so we're wanting to bring that back. >> and you have done a lot of things to sort of shake it up, right? you have brought in some new editors. >> yes. >> and you're actually going to redesign the magazine. i mean, this is unbelievable to me after 60 years. when you first told me this, i said, wait one hot second. you're making "jet" bigger? it is a pocket-sized magazine. it was designed to be this way. >> it is. and we're going to -- we're looking at making it a little larger. i think that, you know, one of the things that's so important in there is the picture of the week. so make it a little larger so

people can really see it. or the beauty of the week or the love section. all of these are great pieces of the book. and we've heard people would like to see them a little bit larger. >> and in fact, we have one image of the redesigned love section, right? >> we do. >> and what is your goal here in terms of modernizing the magazine? what do you hope to accomplish? >> we hope to have something that really has that same excitement that the book had when it began. and so to really be brief, snippets of life, you know, how to unwind. how to really get all the news in one place with a commentary. how to celebrate love. just really quick, fun ways and easy. people don't have a lot of time. >> that's right. they don't. you know, one thing i love about this magazine, and particularly the 60th anniversary, your former boss is on the cover, barack obama. >> he is. >> the president of the united states. it's part of the living the dream section in the magazine. you feature people like oprah winfrey, the first lady, will smith. you know, dream is a word that i see a lot in "jet." i imagine that's not by

accident. >> it is not. it really has been and is a book that inspires. people want to see people that they know, but they also want to see people that perhaps they don't know in their communities that are doing good work. and so it really is an inspirational book. >> can we talk about something you've done at "jet" for a long time? beauty of the week. it's very pin-up and yet you still do it today. >> did you see those girls back in the' 50s in their swimsuits? >> i did. >> we can't get rid of that. >> it really is part of the fabric of the magazine. >> and we'll make her a bit more dimensional so you'll know more about her. >> so more than just the name, age, and occupation. >> yes. you'll know what school she went to and what she majored in, that kind of thing. >> as head of johnson publishing, you also head up "ebony" magazine. >> yes. "ebony" is launching a new digital site in january. that book has been completely redesigned.

"jet" will have a new digital site after we have the new magazine. and then "fashion fair" has got a great line of lipsticks and nail colors for the holidays called siren call. >> i can't wait to see them. and i give you a special congratulations for remaining relevant in a really tough climate. in a world that is now more multicultural and multidimensional. you know, not an easy feat. so congratulations to you for doing that. >> thank you. >> great to see you as always. and you're heading to washington on wednesday for the social secretary's luncheon? >> yeah. >> for your former job. >> yeah. >> ok. great to see you. >> great to see you. your morning headlines are next. it is 47 minutes after the hour.

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here are your morning headlines. u.s. markets open in just about 45 minutes. right now the dow, nasdaq, and s&p 500 futures are all down sharply, suggesting a lower open. it is a final trading day of october, with the s&p 500 up 14% this month. if that holds, it will be the best monthly performance for the index since 1974. herman cain denying a report that two women filed sexual harassment claims against him in the 1990s. politico says the complaints came during cain's tenure as head of the national restaurant association and that both women were paid cash settlements for their silence. cain's camp calls the story untrue and an unfair attack. parts of new england shoveling out from as much as 33 inches of snow after a nasty surprise nor'easter. 4 million people waking up without power this morning. jetblue reportedly could face millions in fines after leaving passengers stranded on a plane for seven hours on the tarmac in hartford, connecticut. passengers say it was hard to breathe and the toilets were

backed up. wegman's supermarket chain recalls 5,000 pounds of turkish pine nuts that may be tainted with salmonella. they have been linked with cases of salmonella between july 1 and october 18. and hail to the cardinals. thousands of fans lined the parade route in st. louis on sunday to honor the world series champions. they beat the texas rangers in seven games to win the 11th world series title in franchise history. that's the news you need to start your day. "american morning" is back after a break.

welcome back. it's 52 minutes after the hour. you know, it's a very big day for all of us here. the global population is hitting the big 7-0-0-0-0-0-0-0. that's a lot of 0s. 7 billion people now on the planet. and we hit the streets for reaction. >> 7 billion. hard to believe and hold up. >> it's a humongous number that's beyond most people's comprehension. >> 7 billion people on planet earth. >> 7 billion? >> as in billion. >> wow. >> a symbolic but powerful number. have you seen these people? the 7 billion? >> no, i haven't. >> reporter: have you created any of those 7 billion? >> i hope not. >> reporter: oh, baby. this hospital arrival looks like he wants to accept the prize but emerged too early.

another baby's mother not disappointed at just missing producing the 7 billionth human. >> oh, wow. no. he came out when he came out. but it was close. >> reporter: what does the number 7 billion, as indicated in this sign in front of the u.n., what does that mean to you? >> that we have increased the population in the world by an enormous amount in a very short time. we are adding 75 million people every year. >> reporter: they're everywhere. and it also seems there are 7 billion baby carriages in manhattan. why did you decide to have a child, if i may ask, with so many people on the planet? >> i live in ohio, and it doesn't seem to be as crowded. i moved out of new york. >> reporter: why is your child now crying since i asked you that question? >> because you don't want people to have any more kids. >> reporter: i didn't say that. as secretary general of the world, are you ready to tell people to stoop having children? or at least in manhattan? >> let us make assure that this seven billionth child can live

without any shortages. can live in peace. >> reporter: ladies, good evening. i'm richard roth of cnn. i entered a womb like environment in the back of a mexican restaurant where few men had gone before. >> just living in manhattan, you feel so sort of claustrophobic. and you think, that number is just massive. >> reporter: it's a new mom support luncheon. hmm. baby knows what's coming. what do you think about bringing a child into in world with 7 billion people? when is enough enough? >> i didn't even ever give it a second thought. it means nothing to me. >> reporter: the child or the 7 billion? >> the child means everything. >> if you told people in the 1800s to stop having babies, where would we be now? so i say keep doing it. >> reporter: richard roth, cnn, new york. >> richard roth is one brave man. you know, he was also stuck on the tarmac on a flight in connecticut too. >> he wasn't on that jetblue

flight? >> i don't think it was the jetblue, but he was stuck there. brave man. >> five minutes to the top of the hour. we'll be back. my finances. my finances. that's why i have slate, with blueprint. i can create my own plan to pay down large purchases faster... or avoid interest on everyday items. that saves me money. with slate from chase, i'm always in control. financially, anyway. get slate with blueprint and save money. call 855-get-slate today. we asked total strangers to watch it for us. thank you so much, i appreciate it, i'll be right back. they didn't take a dime. how much in fees does your bank take to watch your money ? if your bank takes more money than a stranger, you need an ally. ally bank.

no nonsense. just people sense. delivering mail, medicine and packages. yet they're closing thousands of offices, slashing service, and want to lay off over 100,000 workers. the postal service is recording financial losses, but not for reasons you might think. the problem ? a burden no other agency or company bears. a 2006 law that drains 5 billion a year from post-office revenue while the postal service is forced to overpay billions more into federal accounts. congress created this problem, and congress can fix it.

you never get tired of this effect on cnn, do you? >> i happen to like the lighting better, by the way. >> you scared me again! >> that's our friend, jason. good morning to you. >> kids in the nation's capital braved the wet and cold weather this weekend for a real treat courtesy of the president and the first lady. they handed out goody bags with white house trick or treats inside. the bags included a mix of dried fruits, m&ms with the presidential seal and cookies shaped like the white house. the kids came from local elementaries and military families. finally this morning, you don't see this every year. check out this from pennsylvania. it's a snowman lantern.